Cite this post as:
Scott Weingart, MD FCCM. NATO Phonetic Alphabet. EMCrit Blog. Published on June 24, 2016. Accessed on April 26th 2025. Available at [https://emcrit.org/emcrit/nato-phonetic-alphabet/ ].
Financial Disclosures:
The course director, Dr. Scott D. Weingart MD FCCM, reports no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. This episode’s speaker(s) report no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies unless listed above.
CME Review
Original Release: June 24, 2016
Date of Most Recent Review: Jul 1, 2024
Termination Date: Jul 1, 2027
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This Post was by the EMCrit Crew, published 9 years ago. We never spam; we hate spammers! Spammers probably work for the Joint Commission.
This is Sierra Hotel! I have used it for years, and wish it were standard. It is a great way to prevent a huge Charlie Foxtrot…
You can even use Chapter 3 of the International Code of Signals to conduct a medical exam and advise treatment entirely in 2-3 letter code groups via radio or signal flag. It isn’t used much in the age of reliable satellite phones but used to be very important to mariners.
Except for ironing, the most useful thing I learned in the army ?
I WISH there was one universal phonetic alphabet. Unfortunately, the cops generally use a completely different one, with fewer than a half dozen being the same. Since the cops are frequently involved in EMS we are pretty much stuck with “their” phonetic alphabet. When talking to dispatch they want to hear cop phonetics. I still prefer the military version, and use out of habit. The dispatchers will generally forgive me. If they don’t then “sierra, tango”. Or, “Sam, Tom”.
Props for the “Archer” joke in the graphic.
for all those folks that have no idea what the Archer reference is: